South end of South Island

Some photos from our travels in the south end of New Zealand's South Island. We are currently on the ferry to Wellington and will post some more pics soon, including some of the penguins we saw at Curio Bay.

Bus shelter with a twist

Another chance meeting with cruisers - Dorothy and Frank are a German couple whom we last saw in Tonga. Their boat is in Fiji and they are touring the south island by camper van. We bumped into them in Riverton.

Graceful statues in a park in Invercargil

Burt Munro's Munro Special - a modified Indian motorcycle. This is a replica used in the filming of "The World's Fastest Indian"

Burt Munro pointing at a blown out engine. He pushed the 1920's technology to its limits and beyond.

Freedom site at Fortrose - right on a tidal inlet.

Water tower in Invercargill

Light at Waipapa Point

Cormorants at Waipapa Point

NZ Sea Lion was quite unperturbed by us

Rani trying to go further south at Slope Pt - southernmost point in NZ

Petrified forest  - 160 million years old - at Curio Bay

Petrified wood

Kelp at Curio Bay

MacLean Falls

View from a DOC campground we found at the end of a long windy dirt road.

Another view from a nice remote DOC campground

Keppler Track and Milford Sound

Here are a few photos from our two days (one night in a hut) on the Keppler track, plus some from our drive down to Milford Sound and a hike en route at Gertrude Saddle. We decided to stay at the Luxmore hut on the Keppler track so that we could do a full afternoon on the ridge between this hut and the two emergency shelters. Our first day was full - 3.5 hours to the Luxmore hut, then 6 hours along the ridge and back including climbing to the summit of Luxmore.

The Keppler Track hike began in forest along a lake and then climbed out onto a mist-shrouded plateau . This 'fog-bow' lay over the fields just before the Luxmore hut.

Lovely alpine flowers - - the Common New Zealand Gentian (Gentianella bellidifolia). See this blog for details on why this and other NZ gentians are not blue.

The mist highlighted hundreds of webs in the alpine meadows

Rani looks out from the ridge walk trail. The inversion layer clouds soon cleared off.

Chris stands near the summit of Mount Luxmore

Rani consults the map to try to identify nearby peaks and lakes

This mountain had a lovely and tempting ridge walk, but we had a long enough day (about 10 hours hiking) without adding another side trip

We were mutually surprised and delighted to meet our sailing friends, Yoshi and Myumi, off 'Gaku' at the Luxmore hut.

Returning to the Luxmore hut from an extended ridge walk to the Hanging Valley shelter (6 hours return with day packs - after we left our full packs at the shelter)

The Luxmore hut deck at sunrise the next day.

Rani enters the Luxmore cave - about 10 minutes walk above the hut.

Trampers enter the Luxmore cave.

The next day, an inversion layer hid the lake below as we descended to the car park. It cleared as the morning wore on and we had nice views of the lake.

Rani outstanding in her field - on the road to Milford Sound

Stunning scenery on the last 40 kms of the road to Milford Sound. This road passes through an incredible tunnel (the Homer Tunnel), which essentially burrows under the roots of a mountain much like the ones in the picture.

Tree ferns give this place a different feel from our Canadian west coast forest.

Milford Sound from the shore near the departure point for cruises.

New Zealand edelweiss

The awe-inspiring cliffs that guard access to Gertrude Saddle - a challenging day hike that can be accessed along the Milford Sound Road.

This helicopter flew very close to us as it took tourists on a hair-raising flight through the mountain pass.

Climbing the steep smooth slabs.

Rani just below the saddle. Note the steel cables thoughtfully let into the rock as well as the tiny hikers below to give some scale.

Rani looks out from the Gertrude Saddle. Milford Sound is in the distance.

Rani is happy to be coming down because she knows there is a nice glacial lake to swim in just below us.

Routeburn Track Photos

We hiked for a day on the Routeburn track, basing ourselves at the Sylvan DOC campsite, nearby. This campsite is situated down a rough gravel road north of Glenorchy. Glenorchy is at the end of the lake on which Queenstown is located (Wakatipu) and the drive between the two towns is very scenic.

Miiner's cottages at Arrowtown, a charming but touristy small town we passed through en route to Queenstown

Bridge in park in Queenstown. This park was an oasis in an otherwise frenetic city. Queenstown is the base for tourism in both Fiordland and the Queensland Lakes area.

Look off on the drive towards Glenorchy from Queenstown

We began our hike at crack of dawn, because we intended to do the equivalent of two days hiking in one day. All told we hiked for more than 9 hours, with a couple of hours rest along the way, returning at 7 pm.

Routeburn falls lie just above the large hut (48 bunks) and an even larger luxury lodge for guided walkers.

Harris lake lies just below Harris saddle, which was our halfway point on the track.

Some absolutely massive rocks had fallen from the cliffs above the trail.

Shelter and guided walker's rest stop on Harris Saddle. Low clouds/fog came and went in this area.

Looking down on Harris shelter. We climbed Conical Hill above the saddle for some great views, leaving a backpack at the shelter. 

View from Conical Hill - our turnaround point on this hike.

There were a few good photographers on the peak, so we took the opportunity for a couples shot,

360 degree views on Conical Hill

I demonstrate the use of hiking poles above Harris Lake. We have found a single pole quite useful on some of the more scrambly walks.

Lunch spot at Harris Saddle

Giant daisies

Wind swept lookout over Routeburn Flats with the Falls hut and lodge below.

Cows graze in the field at the Sylvan DOC campsite

We are now in Kingston, just south of Queenstown, catching up on emails and doing pharmacy  training.

Our little cottage at Hector's Holiday Camp in Kingston - home for two lovely relaxed days.

Today we leave for Te Anau and the start of the Keppler Track. We will miss Kingston and have enjoyed our stay here at Hector's. I recommend 'The Cottage' as a great little, relatively inexpensive ($60/night) option for campers wanting to get off the ground for a night or two! We have booked a hut on the Keppler track for tomorrow night (54 dollars each!) because we have heard that the scenery on the ridge above the hut is amazing and there is no way to reach it on a day hike.